Good evening, internet!

This is a story that has been a long time in the making. It was originally created by my DM, then modified and expanded into the story you see now. When our group first created our characters, we were told to create them with a specific "goal" in life, ie freeing a friend who was wrongly accused, getting revenge on the man who killed your family... rescuing a brother who had mysteriously disappeared. And then we would each get a turn playing through these character arcs.

Unfortunately, things ended up falling apart, and we never got to Jhade's arc. I was rather disappointed but decided to just go ahead and ask the DM what he had planned. Thus I must credit him with the initial backbone of the story, though I did take quite a few liberties to shape it into the story I wanted.

This story actually has another side to it. My good friend ElleryMelody (also on FFN) has written a version of this story from her character Odell's point-of-view. If people are interested in seeing it, I'll see if I can convince her to post a chapter or two of it, haha.

(Also, shout out to my alpha reader (and memelord supremo) apaz and my beta reader cosette141!)

This story also contains quite a few "references," so just ask if you're curious as to the backstory of a character or the meaning behind something that was said, just ask!

Enjoy!

She wasn't sure when she first started noticing it.

That flash of fear in her brother's eyes.

The one that she told herself was nothing because Murdoch was never afraid of anything. She was the one who was scared, but the one who swallowed her fear because Murdoch would grab her sleeve and tell her it'd all be worth it. And it was: the moonlit games of pirates and robbers in the garden with the pond alive with singing bullfrogs and crickets, the view of the whole world from the jutting edge of a cliff, Murdoch's face filled with a crazed grin as his hair flopped over into his eyes, bright and green as the leaves when the sun would shine through them.

Perhaps—

Perhaps it had started that one day, only a few days after they had turned eight. She was sitting crosslegged in front of one of the seven-foot windows with the fancy curtains, watching the world from behind that pane of glass, that barrier of protection from the elements. It was interesting to think how such a small thing could cut her off so completely from the outside world—

"Jhade? Jhade! JHAAAAAADE!"

Jhade let out a sigh and turned her head, raising an eyebrow as Murdoch came tearing down the corridor.

"What is it, Murdoch?" she asked, giving another loud sigh to let him know how he had disturbed her.

"Okay, okay, okay, so, uh," he began, throwing out his hands, breath coming in gasps. "I think I just found a whole new species of frog, like this frog is different than any other frog I've ever seen, he's, like, I think he's orange and—"

"You bruised your face again," Jhade said, frowning. Murdoch jerked back, raising his hand and scrubbing at it. His grin faltered.

"Probably just dirt or something, anyway—"

"Murdoch? Where have you run off to?"

There it was. The booming voice of Lady Ondine that could be heard throughout the entire manor. The one that she reserved for when she was especially… displeased. The one that made even Father take a step back.

(But not Murdoch, never Murdoch, he wasn't afraid of anything.)

"Ah, crap," Murdoch said, before grabbing Jhade's hand and pulling her to her feet. Jhade let out yet another sigh.

"You know we're only going to get in more trouble if we run."

Murdoch flashed a grin. That was when she saw it. That flicker of fear in his eyes, that tightened grip on her hand. "We won't get in trouble if they can't find us."

And with that, they were off, running as fast as they could down the corridor, bursting out the front door, leaping through the garden into the woods beyond, Jhade giggling so hard she could barely breathe, all other thoughts gone except for the thrill of a daring, and very successful escape.

"Jhade?"

"Mmhm," Jhade muttered.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Well, you haven't made a move for over three minutes, and I just thought I'd let you know Balasar took his chances and stole just about all your cards." Odell's voice held an equal mixture of humor and concern.

"Hm?" Jhade jerked her head up just in time to see the dragonborn take a large slurp of ale, mouth curving into a toothy, and some would say downright vicious grin, his clawed hand full of cards. She pulled a face. "Balasar. That's not how this game works! Stop making that disgusting noise."

"It is exactly how the game works when one's partner has taken to staring off into the distance for hours at a time," the dragonborn replied.

She shot him a scowl and lifted her own cup of tea, taking a few swallows of the soothing warm liquid.

She had begun using tea as her alternative to alcohol not too long after their latest misadventure with the Lord Renaud. It had started by looking for something to help Odell, who had been rather… shaken… by the events—no, it was more than that, something had changed, something had happened—and she'd often heard that tea was a good way to help people relax. She began by dabbling in the various herbal teas for the older man, but then she had discovered this… what did they call it? Caffeinated tea. It turned out to be quite delicious, especially when one was generous with the sugar.

They had all decided to put a hold on the adventuring for a while, to give themselves a bit of a breather to step back and recover from the months of chaos they had gone through. Owen was still with his family and Balasar, after a bit of grumbling, decided that it might be nice to spend some time deciding what exactly to do with all his treasure. Odell had no such protests, and so they had found a quiet town, squirreling away in an inn and watching the winter's snow fade into a wet spring.

"All I'm saying is," said Balasar. "I really don't see what you found so interesting about that wooden pillar you kept staring at."

"I wasn't—I was just… thinking," Jhade said. She set down her cards (Balasar had just about won the game anyway) and grabbed her cup with both hands, taking another swallow of tea to help loosen the knot in her stomach.

With all this free time, she'd been thinking about him more and more lately. Their adventures together. Their hideouts in the woods.

Maybe it was because of the lack of ale. After all, it did have a way of forcing her into a slightly more optimistic state of mind. One where it didn't matter that her brother was missing, because she was Jhade, the greatest druid ever, and she could do anything.

But she couldn't do that anymore. Not when the mere smell of ale in a tavern threw her back into that memory of what had happened with Odell in Raven's Bluff. He'd come along to keep her from getting hurt, yet he was the one who ended up almost killed.

It was different, back when she was on her own, back when the she was the only one getting in trouble. Now there was a risk of her friends getting into trouble and—I don't want to hurt myself anymore.

She'd considered drinking the last of her wine from Renaud's castle as a sort of last hurrah, then—I want to be done with that place, I want to be done with drinking, I want to find my brother.

There it was again. Interrupting her thoughts, pulling her stomach back into a knot. She took a breath and let it out, letting the air ripple across the smooth surface of the tea.

"Just thinking," she repeated. Then she frowned, her gaze flicking up to scan the room. Magic. She felt a tug of magic, magic that felt… familiar somehow.

The world went completely blank.

A candle snuffed out, and the was room left in darkness.

A/N: Now the story is all written, I've just got to revise it all. Now, I'm horrifically slow at revising, but the second chapter is actually all ready to go, and winter break is just around the corner, I should be able to get out a chapter a week. Hopefully. XD

Review!